Improvement in draining and blanching sugars



. UNITEn (STATES,

.PATENT QFEICE- JOHN SPANGENBERG, OF JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DRAlNING AND BLANCHING SUGAR S.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 6,199, dated March 20,1849; antedated September 20, 1848.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN SPANGENBERG, of near New Orleans, in the parishof Jefferson and State of Louisiana, have invented or discovered a newand useful Process of Bleachi'ng Brown Sugar, which is described asfolows:

The common error among planters in the ordinary way of bleaching sugar,whenever it has been attempted in the progress of manufacture, is to puteither the sirup while hot upon the cold sugan'or apply the sirup whencold to the sugar in a warm or heated state. Sometimes, when the effortis made to bleach by the addition of sirup upon the sugar, both aremixed in a warm or hot state. This is also erroneous, and in allinstances the mixing of sirup with sugar or putting or adding it to orupon sugar has been merely by sprinkling it. This will not effect theobject which, as I claim, can only be accomplished by saturating thewhole mass in acold state. My method is this: The sirup, after it hasarrived at what is termed proof, or the condition of sugar, is thenladled or bailed out of the tache or battery and thrown into coolers andallowed to remain until it is cold, after which it is potted or put intothe hogshead or vessel, and the sirup is applied while both are in thecold state. When the hogshead, package, mold, or vessel is filled orpotted up in the ordinary way to within, say, from six inches to twofeet of the top, according to the quantity of the sugar to be saturatedor the size of thevessel, continue to fill up the vessel to the top, orun til it is full enough, adding as much cold sirup or liquor to thesugar as will saturate the whole mass. The sirup, running from the topof the sugar in a great body and percolating thoroughly through everypart of it,,will by its gravity and its general diffusion in a fluidstate carry off a great deal of the coloringmatter of the sugar, andthus leave itmore or less blanched, according to the purity of sirup andthe quantity applied within the above limits.

The proportion of sirup depends upon its own density and the requiredwhiteness of the sugar, so that it may be from five to thirty gallons ofsirup for each thousand pounds of sugar, as the manufacturer sees properto use.

Another method under this plan is to saturate the sugar as it is beingput or pottedinto the hogshead orvessel by adding the.sirup from time totime as the filling goes on.

The molasses may be first drawn from the coolers or not; but it'ifirstdrawn or bled the sirup or liquor will have a greater effect inbleaching, as the coloring-matter is dimin ished before the sirup isapplied.

To make the sirup or liquid to be used I take molasses and reduce it,with pure water, alcohol, spirits, or any other suit-able liquid, to anydegree of the pse-sirop, or saccharometer ofBaum below the density ofmolasses, which is about 40 of Baum. This extent of range is necessary,as the precise strength between those points will depend upon the colorrequired for the sugar, as the weaker the sirup within the degrees namedthe clearer will the sugar be.

It must be observed that in order to blanch or refine sugar a sufiicientquantity of the sirup must be used to penetrate and saturate the wholemass; otherwise that part which has not been touched by the liquid willnot be improved or whitened. The proportion of sirup is from one gallonto one gallon and a half to every hundred pounds of sugar, or, as saidbefore, from five to thirty gallons of sirup to every thousand pounds ofsugar, which is about the same proportion. The quantity to be appliedwill depend upon the degree of bleaching required. The liquor or sirup Iuse, or that may be used, in this process will cost the planter ormanufacturer very little, as I make it from the ordinary molasses of theplantation, instead of taking refined or other more expensive sirups,and this is a great saving, not only to the manufacturer, but to thecommunity, as by this reduction or absence of expense the article can bebrought into market in a good condition and at a cheaper price. Sugarsthus treated do not lose by drainage, and do not so readily absorbmoisture or deliquesce upon sea-voyages, as they are relieved or freedof the molasses.

The difficulties heretofore have been among planters, first, to bleachsugars at all in large quantities; secondly, that when resort has beenhad to the use of sirups they have proved too expensive to be madegeneral; thirdly,

that they have always been applied either while they'or the sugar, orboth of them, were in a warm or hot state and would not answertheobject; fonrthly, that no certain or defined density of sirup has everbeen fixed upon or any range within any given number of degrees proposedor established as a guide or direction by which the proper density ofthe sirup should be made or regulated for the blanching of sugar;fifthly, that there was no known method of saturating the whole body ofthe sugar in.

the hogsheadin the progress of the mannfaetnre, so as to carry off themolasses. These are allobviated in the present improvement.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-- m y name before two subscribing witnesses.

J. SPANGENBERG.

Witnesses:

A. E. H. JOHNSON,

W. FENWIGK.

